AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 391 



given at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, at the University 

 of North Wales, the Armstrong College, and in the Public Depart- 

 ment of Woods and Forests in Alice Holt Woods and the Forest of 

 Dean. Considerable sums are also expended by the Boards of 

 Education and of Agriculture in subvention to colleges and institutes, 

 and for the furtherance of agricultural training. 



Education on a scale so varied and extensive must in the long run 

 produce results. Already its effect is visible. Unfortunately, for 

 the children of agricultural labourers little or nothing is done which 

 does not unfit them for their fathers' industry. They cannot afford 

 to attend Colleges or Institutes. Continuation and night schools 

 do not begin till the mischief is really done. What is most wanted 

 is some form of elementary instruction in rural schools adapted to 

 the needs of agriculturists. The problem is admittedly difficult. 

 Teachers, as a rule, are not interested in country life. Here and 

 there, an individual may succeed in implanting his own rural 

 enthusiasms in his pupils. Text-books adapted to the surroundings 

 of country children may prove a help. But the practical training 

 is still wanting. School gardens are a step in the right direction. 

 Rightly or wrongly, no effort has been made to imitate the con- 

 tinental practice of closing rural schools from hay-time to harvest, 

 and lengthening the winter hours. Whether some more suitable 

 system of elementary rural education might not have helped to 

 check rural depopulation may be an open question. School 

 influences alone can never attract young persons to remain on the 

 land. But at present they rather promote than discourage migra- 

 tion into towns, and farmers not unnaturally grudge the growing 

 expenditure on an education which assists in making rural labour 

 at once more scarce and less efficient. Elementary education may 

 not always produce this effect. In its present stage of transition, 

 its disturbing influences are increased by the conditions of rural 

 homes. The younger generation is better educated than the old, 

 and both are conscious of the fact. This sense of disparity fosters 

 in the children a distaste for village life, and in the parents a desire 

 that the superior attainments of their children should have wider 

 opportunities than they themselves enjoyed. In another genera- 

 tion, the disparity will have disappeared ; the atmosphere of the 

 home will have become, it may be hoped, more educated. At this 

 later stage of its development, education may tend rather to con- 

 tentment than to discontent. It may in itself supply those fresh 



